Punishment for sins, honoring righteous souls, and religion were all significant in the assigned readings. The fact that I’m catholic and actually believe Heaven and Hell really exist, the reading “Heaven and Hell” further enhances my will not to end up in this dreadful hell. If hell is even fraction of how the reading depicts it to be, then sinners are in for a long gruesome ride. For example, “I saw the soul of a man through whose fundament a snake went in . . . and many other snakes ever seized his limbs. . .‘What sin,’ I inquired, ‘was committed by this body whose soul suffers so severe a punishment?’” (198) Punishment for sin was very severe and related to the evil words, evil thoughts, and evil deeds of your time on earth. Here’s another example of how unpleasant hell is, “I saw the greedy jaws of hell: the most frightful pit . . . amid such a stench that all whose nose inhaled air, struggled, staggered, and fell, and in such confinement that existence seemed impossible.”(198) Just reading and the thought of this gave me an upset stomach. Imagine actually going through this, definitely not something to look forward to.

On the other hand Heaven is something you can definitely look forward to. For example, “He passed on, a fourth step, to the place of radiance called All Glorious . . . Taste, therefore, immortality; for here you see bliss eternal. Choosing between eternal happiness and immortality or eternal suffering and ceasing to exist, not that hard of a